David Cameron's failure to learn the Leninist lesson

Hiring advisers from the tabloids he has projected an image of himself as a thoroughly modern man, toiling to the office on his bike.

Cameron has failed to heed the crucial Leninist lesson, which is that the most important underpinning of success: in order to escape further defeats at the polls, a new leader must first defeat his own party.

 Instead Cameron has relied mainly on a type of charismatic leadership, whose limitations may now be emerging.